EFF to Warn About Mobile Device Tracking at FTC

Washington, D.C. - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Technologist Seth Schoen will warn attendees at a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conference Wednesday that most people don't realize the current extent of mobile device tracking and just how sensitive cell phone location data can be. The conference is set for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 17 at the FTC Conference Center.

"The ability for marketers and others to recognize where a particular device is located is actually an unintended consequence of technologies like wifi," said Schoen. "It's not a designed-in feature – it's something that people are taking advantage of, and it should be viewed as a security problem and fixed."